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Covering events from January - December 2004
Madrid bombings
On 11 March an armed group reportedly linked to al-Qa’ida exploded 10 bombs on four commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring over 1,600. The bombs exploded on trains in the main station of Atocha and the suburban stations of El Pozo and Santa Eugenia. The then centre-right government immediately and persistently blamed the armed Basque group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which denied any involvement. By November police and judicial inquiries into the Madrid bombings had ruled out involvement by ETA (which, in August and September, had carried out a series of small blasts in Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque country and which exploded further bombs in December).
An increase in racist abuse and ill-treatment was reported in the aftermath of the Madrid massacre. In some police and prison ill-treatment cases Muslims were abused as “terrorists”.
Throughout the year over 100 Muslims were arrested in connection with various judicial inquiries into the bombings and the alleged preparation of other crimes. Among those arrested was the al-Jazeera journalist Taysir Allouni, a Syrian-born Spanish citizen who had first been arrested in 2003. Like others arrested with him, Taysir Allouni denied any involvement in crimes linked to “terrorism”. A parliamentary commission, established by the new minority government to investigate the events surrounding the bombings and the conduct of the security services and Spanish government, decided in September to prolong its investigation and took evidence from past and present prime ministers. In December the judge investigating the bombings criticized the lack of coordinated assistance to the victims.
- In March, Ángel Berroeta Legaz was shot dead in his bakery in Pamplona (Navarra) by an off-duty National Police officer who was also a neighbour. According to reports, the officer fired four shots at Ángel Berroeta after the latter had been engaged in a heated argument with the officer’s wife. The baker had reportedly refused to display in his shop a poster denouncing ETA as the perpetrators of the bombings. The police officer and his son were arrested and police and judicial inquiries were opened into the death.
Torture and ill-treatment
There were a large number of allegations of torture or ill-treatment, many of them race related or connected with the practice of incommunicado detention. Several court sentences were passed for torture or ill-treatment.
In February the UN Special Rapporteur on torture reported on a 2003 visit to Spain to study safeguards for the protection of detainees in the context of “anti-terrorism” measures. The Rapporteur noted that: “the degree of silence that surrounds the subject and the denial by the authorities without investigating the allegations of torture have made it particularly difficult to provide the necessary monitoring of protection and guarantees”. He concluded that the “internal consistency of the information received” and precise factual details provided in relation to a number of allegations suggested that they “could not be fabrications”. Although not a regular practice, the occurrence of torture was “more than sporadic and incidental”. The Rapporteur recommended that the government draw up a comprehensive plan to prevent and suppress torture and that the practice of holding people incommunicado be ended. The former government, which vigorously repudiated the report’s conclusions, continued to refuse to introduce safeguards for incommunicado detainees and by the end of the year the new government had made no moves to implement the Rapporteur’s recommendations.
- In November the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment on the case of 15 Catalans who claimed they had been physically and mentally tortured while held incommunicado on the eve of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. While it did not find that Spain had violated the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the allegations themselves, the Court stated that its task had been hindered by a lack of detailed information and the “very long period” since the events. The Court found that Spain had violated Article 3 of the Convention by failing to hold a thorough and effective investigation into the allegations. The Court said the defendants had been denied a reasonable opportunity to establish the matters of which they complained. One of the problems was the lack of detail contained in medical reports.
- In June an officer of the Catalan autonomous police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, was placed under investigation for the torture of a minor in a judicial inquiry in Lleida (Catalonia). Jordi Vilaseca Cantacorps had been arrested in April 2003 in connection with alleged acts of street violence and held incommunicado under “anti-terrorism” legislation. He claimed he was forced to stand motionless for up to eight hours without food or water, and then to kneel without moving for several hours more. Exhausted and dehydrated, he eventually collapsed and was taken to hospital.
- In March the Supreme Court confirmed prison sentences of seven and a half years for two men for the abduction and physical abuse of three North African workers, including Hichan Brahini and Garmai Bou Bakelir, in El Ejido in 1997. The municipal council had requested a pardon for the men. The Andalusian Ombudsman opened an inquiry into allegations that an officer of the Local Police was continuing to harass and ill-treat North African immigrants in the town. The number of complaints reportedly increased after the 11 March bombings.
- In a disturbing judgment in May the Provincial Court of Girona established that the Moroccan national Driss Zraidi had “undoubtedly” been tortured and racially abused in the police station of Roses (Catalonia) in August 1998. However, the court acquitted 14 officers of the Mossos d’Esquadra because it could not identify the officers involved. It also decided that the torture inflicted was probably “light” torture, consisting of pushing about and vigorous shaking hours after Driss Zraidi had sustained broken ribs. The Catalan Interior Minister reportedly expressed surprise at the judgment and asked the Supreme Court to review it.
Minors in detention
There was an increase in complaints of ill-treatment of minors in detention centres and several judicial proceedings were opened into allegations of violence against minors by supervisors in centres throughout Spain. There were also reports of ill-treatment of minors in police custody. In November the Attorney General prohibited the systematic repatriation of foreign minors. He stated the practice was in contravention of the UN Children’s Convention.
- In October the parents of Enrique Rincón Alguacil complained that he had been ill-treated in police custody in Madrid after attending a gathering in the Plaza de España. He was allegedly kicked, beaten with a baton, handcuffed and verbally abused. His parents were not informed of his detention, despite their son’s requests. A medical report referred to “multiple haematoma” compatible with Enrique Rincón’s assertion that he had been assaulted. The parents of Pablo Armando Castro complained that their son had been similarly ill-treated after arrest following the same event. Again, the parents claimed they were not informed at any time of their child’s detention, despite the fact that he was held overnight.
Prisons
There were reports of violent deaths and torture and ill-treatment in various prisons, many of which were suffering intense overcrowding. They included Salto del Negro (Gran Canaria) and Tahíche (Lanzarote), where the prosecutor attached to the High Court of the Canary Islands described the problem as “urgent”. Judicial investigations were carried out into complaints that prison staff had been involved in acts of brutality against prisoners.
- In May a series of inquiries was held into a riot at Quatre Camins prison in Catalonia on 30 April, in which the deputy director was badly injured and over 70 prisoners were reportedly ill-treated by guards. In July the Justice Ministry of the Generalitat, the government of the autonomous region of Catalonia, submitted a report to the public prosecutor, recognizing that up to 26 prisoners had been ill-treated. In July the Justice Ministry dismissed the deputy medical director of Quatre Camins and in September it announced that the director and deputy director of the prison had also been dismissed.
- In September the prosecutor attached to the Provincial Court in Lugo (Galicia) concluded that the chief doctor and two prison officers had assaulted a Moroccan prisoner in February 2002, in the prison of Monterroso. The attack, which was racially motivated, occurred after Magdare Rabay had threatened to injure himself if the doctor did not change his medicine. Two guards reportedly beat him until he lost consciousness, then the doctor beat him again. The prosecutor claimed that Magdare Rabay had also been urinated on, racially abused and called a “terrorist”.
Violence against women
Over 60 women were reported killed in incidents of domestic violence. According to the General Council of the Judiciary, 47,000 complaints of violence against women were recorded in the first half of 2004, an increase of 24 per cent over the comparable period in 2003. The figures showed a constant increase in complaints and reflected a lack of effectiveness of public policies in combating violence. Problems associated with cases of violence against women included inadequate medical reports or legal representation. In July the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women examined Spain’s fifth periodic report and called on Spain to intensify its efforts to address the issues of domestic violence, discrimination against migrant women and the trafficking of women.
Victims of the Civil War/Franco regime
In his annual report in June the Spanish Ombudsman criticized the authorities’ lack of response to individuals and associations attempting to exhume and to identify remains from burial pits containing the bodies of some of the thousands killed during or after the 1936-39 Civil War. In June, AI’s Secretary General urged the new government to “recuperate the memory, dignity and remains of the forgotten victims of the Civil War and Franco’s regime”. In September the Spanish Council of Ministers approved a royal decree setting up an inter-ministerial committee to investigate the “moral and legal rehabilitation” of thousands who were victims of the Civil War and Franco regime. The committee began work in November.
AI country visits
In June the AI Secretary General led a delegation to Madrid, Barcelona and Vitoria.
